LAPD Chief Beck’s successor could be one of these police leaders embracing reform

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After a press conference Friday, Jan. 19, 2018, at LAPD headquarters about a decrease in crime rates, Beck announced his retirement effective June of this year. (Photo by John McCoy, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

The field of candidates in the running to become the next chief of the Los Angeles Police Department was narrowed this week from five to three, and according to activists and city officials each of the finalists are department veterans with decades of experience who were also willing to embrace reforms.

Deputy Chief Robert Arcos, Assistant Chief Michel Moore and San Francisco Police Department Chief William Scott were expected to interview with Mayor Eric Garcetti this week.

The selection of the trio by the board of the Los Angeles Police Commission brings nearly to a close the process of choosing the replacement for outgoing Chief Charlie Beck, who will retire this summer.

Moore has worked for the department for nearly four decades, and is one of LAPD’s highest-ranking officers. He’s one of three assistant chiefs who report directly to Beck, and oversees the department’s five bureaus responsible for thousands of patrolling officers.

Arcos commands LAPD’s Central Bureau, which includes downtown and nearby areas like Eagle Rock, Echo Park and Boyle Heights. He would be the first Latino chief in LAPD’s history if he was chosen.

Scott left LAPD in 2017 after decades with the department to lead the San Francisco police.

Multiple media organizations reported the names of the finalists Tuesday after Garcetti said he would not reveal the top three on Monday.

“To protect the confidentiality of the candidates, we do not expect to make any announcements in this process until after Mayor Garcetti makes a selection,” said Alex Comisar, a spokesman for the mayor, in an email.

Tough issues for next chief

Whoever is chosen for the job will inherit a police department dealing with national scrutiny over homelessness, police shootings and immigration.

Both Arcos and Scott, according to activists who have tracked their careers, appear to have made the final cut at least in part because of strong stances they’ve taken on these issues.

Denisse Gastelum is the president of the Mexican American Bar Association of Los Angeles County, which endorsed Arcos for chief. She said the deputy chief in the past has not spared criticism of his own department over uses of force.

“He’s one of the only (police leaders) I know of to admit LAPD has an issue with fatal shootings, with uses of force,” Gasetlum said. “You just don’t hear people like him say that.”

She said Arcos’ time leading Central Bureau also likely means he is well-versed in the city’s most vexing issues, including homelessness. The bureau includes Skid Row, home to thousands of transients.

Scott was hired in San Francisco to turn around a police department also struggling with controversial police shootings, as well as a scandal involving racist text messages sent between officers.

In March, Scott fired a rookie police officer who shot and killed an unarmed carjacking suspect three months earlier. The shooting took place on the rookie’s fourth day on the job.

The firing incensed the city’s police union. But Barbara Attard, a veteran police accountability consultant who was one of the first civilians tasked with overseeing complaints about SFPD practices, said Scott made “an important call.”

“He came in at a tough time,” Attard said. “I have to say, he has embraced some of the reforms we asked for.”

Still, she said, activists in the city remained “skeptical and concerned,” over some of the issues Scott has embraced so far in his short tenure, including his support of arming San Francisco police with tasers.

Names kept secret

Garcetti’s decision not to reveal the names of the finalists for the job bucked the precedent set by at least two of his predecessors. The announcement also marked a reversal from Friday, when Garcetti said he planned to reveal the names.

But public safety experts, and even some longtime critics of LAPD, said Garcetti’s move seemed to be less about secrecy and more of an acknowledgement that a rare candidate from outside the department appeared to have made the cut.

Jorja Leap, professor at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, said she believed Garcetti intended to be transparent.

“I think circumstances have now dictated that he be judicious, that he be cautious out of respect for the final three,” Leap said Tuesday by phone. “My suspicion, and it is only my suspicion, that perhaps one or more of the three finalists is employed elsewhere and he wants to maintain confidentiality around his choice so as not to endanger (the candidate’s current) position.”

Connie Rice, a veteran civil rights attorney who led an independent commission investigating LAPD’s 1999 Rampart scandal, said it wasn’t a surprise that Garcetti chose to keep the name secret.

“If there are out of town chiefs that are applying, you’d want to protect their identities, and even those from within the department might not want people to know if they were chosen or not chosen,” Rice said. “Each mayor and commission can fiddle with the process in whatever way they want.”

Steve Soboroff, the president of the Los Angeles Police Commission, said he expected the mayor to select a chief by May 27.

“It’s (Garcetti’s) process, and I believe this process includes one or multiple interviews with each of the candidates,” Soboroff said Tuesday.

Steve Soboroff said that any of the five candidates would be “highly qualified” to be chief of any American city.

The candidates went through a very thorough and detailed process while the commission solicited extensive input, he said.

Soboroff called the process of involving “all kinds of stakeholders,” in the search for a new chief “unprecedented.” He said that included soliciting input from the the public, the Los Angeles City Council, dozens of community groups, police unions, command staff and civilian employees.

“Based on the final three, (Garcetti) can’t pick a bad candidate,” Soboroff said. “They’re all terrific.”

Brenda Gazzar is a multilingual multimedia reporter who has worked for a variety of news outlets in California and in the Middle East since 2000. She has covered a range of issues, including breaking news, immigration, law and order, race, religion and gender issues, politics, human interest stories and education. Besides the Los Angeles Daily News and its sister papers, her work has been published by Reuters, the Denver Post, Ms. Magazine, the Jerusalem Post, USA Today, the Christian Science Monitor, the Los Angeles Jewish Journal, The Cairo Times and others. Brenda speaks Spanish, Hebrew and intermediate Arabic and is the recipient of national, state and regional awards, including a National Headliners Award and one from the Associated Press News Executives' Council. She holds a dual master's degree in Communications/Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Texas at Austin.

Joshua Cain is a crime and public safety reporter for the Southern California News Group, based at the L.A. Daily News in Woodland Hills. He has worked for SCNG since 2016, previously as a digital news editor in the San Gabriel Valley, helping cover breaking news, crime and local politics.